The general outline is well-enough known: Dante has a vision (on Easter weekend, 1300) in which he visits Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. (The vision frame is external to the poem itself; the Dante inside the poem is the dreamer from the very beginning.) He is guided through the first two realms (well, all of Hell and most of Purgatory) by Virgil, and through the rest of Purgatory and all of Heaven by Beatrice, the focus of his early work La Vita Nuova. He begins in a dark wood, "selva oscura" and ends with the beatific vision of the union of the Christian Trinity and the Aristotelian unmoved mover: "l'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle".

On its way he maintains a multi-level allegory, fills it with an encyclopaedia of his day's science, history, and theology, carries out an extended argument regarding the (sad) politics of his day and of his beloved Florence, from which he was an exile, and does so in verse which stays at high level of virtuosity throughout. It's the sort of thing that writers like Alanus de Insulis tried in a less ambitious way and failed (well, failed by comparison: who except specialists reads the De Planctu Naturae these days?).

There is no equivalent achievement, and very few at the same level. This would get six stars if they were available. ( )

DO NOT BUY THIS EBOOK. The Kindle edition has no intro, no note from the translator (Longfellow), no note from a colleague of the translator, no context for the poem, nothing at all extra to help one appreciate and understand this great work of literature and translation, and no note that this edition is not complete. Once again, Amazon has cheated ebook readers. ( )

What's there to say? He literally wrote the book on Hell (and Purgatory and Paradise) and takes the reader on a stunning journey while scathingly condemning his political foes and those who exiled him from Florence.

Three stars because no english translation can do it justice, but Mandelbaum tends often to skip the rhyme scheme in favor of conveying the meaning of the lines, which is a vast improvement. Also, the format is far inferior to the Bantum Classics edition. ( )

I feel the important thing to keep in mind with this text is the title. As is explicated in the preface, for the ancients a “comedy” was a satire – not quite the equivalent of what we see a comedy to be today. As a religious or philosophical text, it leaves much to be wanting. The philosophy is convoluted, and for as much as Dante proclaims his absolute faith, he takes so many liberties within his portrayal of all three levels that at times leaves him downright heretical.

As such, what is of significance is the cultural circumstances around this book. It serves more as a look into the state of the church in the 14th century, and the pervading corruption throughout the Middle Ages. One need only look towards the characters and their places within the journey to see just how much more this book has to do with satirizing the predominant figures of his time. It is due to this that I give it such a high rating. It is of course of historical and literary merit, but overall, unless you are someone looking for a broader look into Dante’s time, the story itself will be lacking for one who approaches it from either side: the skeptical or the faithful.( )

Dante Alighieri's poetic masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, is a moving human drama, an unforgettable visionary journey through the infinite torment of Hell, up the arduous slopes of Purgatory, and on to the glorious realm of Paradise—the sphere of universal harmony and eternal salvation.

10 illustrations

@HolyHaha I have to climb a mountain now? You got to be kidding me. Is this a joke? Who the hell came up with story? VIIIRRRGGGILLLLLLLLLLL!

From Twitterature: The World's Greatest Books in Twenty Tweets or Less

"'The Divine Comedy' begins in a shadowed forest on Good Friday in the year 1300. It proceeds on a journey that, in its intense recreation of the depths and the heights of human experience, has become the key with which Western civilization has sought to unlock the mystery of its own identity. Allen Mandelbaum's astonishingly Dantean translation, which captures so much of the life of the original, renders whole for us the masterpiece that genius whom our greatest poets have recognized as a central model for all poets. This Everyman's edition -- containing in one volume all three cantos, 'Inferno,' 'Purgatorio,' and 'Paradiso' -- includes an introduction by Nobel Prize-winning poet Eugenio Montale, a chronology, notes, and a bibliography. Also included are forty-two drawings selected from Botticelli's marvelous late-fifteenth century series of illustrations." ***"An epic poem in which the poet describes his spiritual journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise -- guided first by the poet Virgil and then by his beloved Beatrice -- which results in a purification of his religious faith."… (more)